In 1967 Alex a young student from North Carolina who had just graduated in International Affairs volunteered for the American Peace Corps and was sent to Iran to teach English. Whilst there he met and fell in love with Ali a local boy a few years younger than him, and for the next ten years the two were inseparable. Ali lived at home with his family who had no idea of the true nature of their son’s relationship with this blond American man, but they still welcomed him into their midst and treated him like another son.
When the Iranian Revolution came in 1977 Alex, like every other foreigner, had to quickly leave the country fearful for his live. The new repressive regime cut off contact with the rest of the world and with it any chance of Alex and Ali being able to remain in contact with each other. However sometime in the late 1980’s the couple started corresponding with each other. Mindful of the fact that they knew the Iranian Government were censoring all mail and tapping phone conversations, they were careful not to write or say anything that may imply they were in fact a couple.
As the years passed by Alex had relationships with other men but kept on communicating with Ali who he considered the love of his life. Then in 2012 at the ripe old age of 68, Alex now living with HIV, is encouraged by his filmmaker nephew Malachi, to see if there is not a way that these two men can finally be together.
Their detailed research showed that the best possibility for a meeting is to see if they can arrange for Ali to fly into neighboring Turkey which is one of the very few places his Government will allow him to visit. There the two man can meet up for a vacation and explore the possibility of getting Ali permission to then come to live in the USA permanently. He has spent the past few years being a surrogate father to his late brother’s family and looking after his mother, but they are not the main obstacle for his potential departure. The only grounds that he can apply for any sort of US residency is if he is a refugee in danger in his own country. The fact he is gay and living in Iranian makes him well qualified, but neither Alex or Malachi are convinced that Ali can overcome all his cultural heritage and actually admit to that. Being gay after all in Iran means that you will be executed.
Malachi’s documentary witnesses the men’s excited arrival in Istanbul, which is quickly marred when Ali admits that he didn’t follow Alex’s instructions and he packed personal letters, political documents and a US Visa Application in his carry-on luggage which the Iranian Authorities ceased. It immediately puts a black cloud over the whole vacation as they all know that Ali will be questioned and punished the moment he returns. Meanwhile despite Alex’s breezy outlook on how love conquers all, it soon appears that although Ali may agree with him, he thinks that the intervening years have hardened and changed Alex’s attitudes to life in general, a fact that greatly disturbs him.
The main difference between these two men who obviously still greatly care for each other as a matter of respect for the past that they shared, is that Alex is rosy eyed about his future, whilst pragmatic Ali is prepared to face the consequences of the reality of his life even though by now we all share his concern of how dire this can possibly be. Ali’s rigid belief in his faith in God is admirable but totally foolhardy.
It’s a powerful and depressingly sad story although somewhat ironically it’s played out against Istanbul’s rather beautiful landscape. The reunion turned a distant magical memory for two old lonely men into a tragedy that neither of them deserved. In fact I hope the very existence of this well-made thought-provoking movie doesn’t cause any further problems for Ali still living in Iran.
